Pittsburgh: Workshop of the Titans
Lift the Seat and Presto! Milady's Sofa Becomes a Bathtub
As part of a 100th anniversary celebration, Joseph Home Co., Pittsburgh department store, displayed
this Victorian sofa-tub. The bather filled the zinc-lined bath with a bucket and bailed it out after use.
Then the hinged top could be lowered for a nap. The relic is from the bathtub collection of Theodore E.
Mueller, president of the American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corporation.
the beauty of the Polish room is prouder than
he was before of his own heritage.
Some of the nationality rooms which I saw
had regular classes in session. Not too un
suitably, a professor was lecturing to a large
class in medieval history in the Greek room;
an Army officer had a small seminar in mili
tary strategy in the Chinese room (page 136).
Although this University goes back to the
Pittsburgh Academy, chartered in 1787, it was
not a very important institution until former
Chancellor John G. Bowman began to enlist
the interest of large corporations and wealthy
individuals in 1921. It is distinctly a local,
a city, an urban university.
Not only do most of the students come from
the Pittsburgh district, but most of them re
main there; in other words, the University
supplies the great industries with much of
their technical, trained manpower.
During a single semester of the 1947-48
academic year, 2,500 employees of business
and industry were enrolled in afternoon, eve
ning, and Saturday classes; the Carnegie
Illinois Steel Corporation alone supplied 200
such students.
One department of the University which
does not draw its students from the Pittsburgh
district alone, and whose graduates do not
necessarily remain there, is the Research Bu
reau for Retail Training, founded in 1918,
the first cooperative college school of retailing
in the country. The Pittsburgh department
stores have contributed $1,500,000 to its sup
port, and many of its graduates hold execu
tive positions in department stores, both in
Pittsburgh and in other cities (page 130).
Memorial to a Song Writer
Near the Cathedral of Learning, and de
signed to harmonize with it, is a much smaller
building, the Stephen Collins Foster Memorial
139